Miami Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria asks fans, media to "call a halt to it all and try and get behind the home team next year."

MIAMI He spoke about the past, but Miami Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria wants everyone focused on the future.

Meeting with local media Monday for the first time since the club's scorched earth regular and offseason, Loria apologized for the disastrous inaugural campaign at Marlins Park. What he isn't sorry about is how the organization has embarked on building a sustainable winner, even if it means getting steamrolled for a season or two.

"I'm sorry we built this amazing ballpark and fans are feeling the way they do, but we did this for a reason," Loria said during the informal gathering in the Marlins Park Diamond Club. "We weren't going anywhere. Anybody who's a baseball person would realize after two years like we had, we had to do something swiftly and quickly and bold.

"I'd like to turn the clock ahead two years from now and look back at what we did. We had three or four prospects in our system that we could call up. We had no good young players."

That changed in the aftermath of trades that sent veterans Hanley Ramirez, Anibal Sanchez, Omar Infante, Edward Mujica, Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle, Josh Johnson, Emilio Bonifacio and John Buck elsewhere. The Marlins have a replenished farm system and several intriguing but unproven talents they're counting on to produce immediately.

"We didn't break up the 1927 Yankees," Loria said. "We broke up a losing ball club that was going nowhere for two straight years. I'm about winning. I like to win. I love winning. I love Miami. I love this ballclub and I love what we've done now. It's a little painful for a lot of people, but no pain, no gain."

Loria acknowledged the fans' disdain, particularly at the inclusion of Reyes in the blockbuster trade with the Blue Jays. Last offseason the Marlins signed Reyes to a six-year, $106 million contract. Reyes on at least two occasions has said he received assurances from Loria that he wasn't going anywhere.

Earlier this spring, Reyes revealed Loria encouraged him to buy a house in South Florida. According to Loria's account, he invited Reyes to an ALS dinner a few days before President of Baseball Operations Larry Beinfest presented him with the Blue Jays' deal.

"What you were told is inaccurate," he said. "I never told him to buy a house. He was looking for a house...Larry came to me with a trade he wanted to do and I immediately called Jose's agent out of respect for him and said, 'Jose is going to be traded and I want you to call him before he reads about it.'"

Looking ahead, Loria reiterated a point he made in an open letter to Marlins fans that appeared in all of South Florida's major newspapers Sunday. The organization now has a top rated farm system and a potential core of young, foundational players.

Is Giancarlo Stanton at the apex of that list? Loria hopes so, but he doesn't anticipate making him a long-term contract proposal this season. Stanton has expressed disappointment with what Loria termed a "re-start."

"We have to let him play it out, let him feel more comfortable," Loria said. "I want him to feel comfortable about stability here and what we're doing…We're hoping that moment will come, absolutely hoping that moment will come, but Giancarlo needs to play this year. He's here certainly for the foreseeable future and we will cross that bridge at the appropriate moment.

"He's a Marlin. You're jumping the gun. I would love to see him be the centerpiece of the ballclub. He's a young giant on this ballclub, but you can't make promises in this game because strange things happen all the time."

One thing that won't happen is the Marlins approaching a $100 million payroll as they did in 2012. Loria said the team is not benefitting from a lucrative TV contract like many other clubs, and last season's attendance fell well short of expectations.

President David Samson said revenue comes from bodies in the seats. The Marlins' turnstile figure was 1.4 million, about a million less than what they anticipated. In addition, season tickets are down from 12,000 in 2012 to fewer than 5,000.

"We built this ballpark because we thought there would be a lot of fans coming here down the road," Loria said. "I understand they're disappointed. That's a natural reaction. We didn't do this for fun. We did this because we think we had something special.

"I understand the feeling, but I have no interest in endless losing and we had two years of that. I want to see us get back to our winning ways… I'm hoping maybe we can call a halt to it all and try and get behind the home team next year."